Tribal Disenrollment in Indian Country Today is an IMMORAL Abuse of Tribal SovereigntyCORRUPT Councils Wield Sovereignty As a CLUB to BEAT the Weak and Destroy Native American's Civil Rights in the Process

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit from the descendants of black slaves who were once owned by members of the Muscogee Creek Nation and who are seeking citizenship in the tribe, saying that they should go through the tribe’s own legal process first.

The Tulsa World reports that U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., dismissed the Muscogee Creek freedmen descendants’ lawsuit this week seeking citizenship in the Creek Nation.

The Okmulgee-based tribe is the fourth largest in the country, with over 86,000 enrolled citizens.

The descendants filed a lawsuit last July against the Creek Nation and the U.S. Department of the Interior seeking full tribal citizenship and to have the tribe’s constitution declared in violation of the Treaty of 1866.

The Cherokee Nation faced a similar lawsuit that was resolved (OP: With a RESOUNDING victory in COURT) last year.

Cherokee Freedmen Attorney Jon Velie had this to say on his Facebook page:

The Cherokee Freedmen and Seminole Freedmen cases were resounding decisions with very strong language affirming Freedmen citizens equality in their respective Tribes. This case was dismissed on a technicality.

ELEM, PALA, PECHANGA, PICAYUNE, PINOLEVILLE, SAN PASQUAL and SHINGLE SPRINGS among the recipients of grants of $50,000 or more in order to "locate and preserve artifacts". We just wrote about Pechanga usurping the Gabrieleno Tongva people's ancestor's remains. Perhaps these disenrolling tribes should worry about preserving their most valuable resource--their Indian PEOPLE--first. It wouldn't take much time, energy, or money to locate the thousands of living indian people, from whom their corrupt tribal governments have stolen their very birthright through disenrollment and moratoriums. BONES shouldn't be more important than peopleHere is a list of disenrolling tribes at the amounts our government granted:

Monday, April 29, 2019

Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Mac Lean Sweeney today announced that she has appointed Darryl LaCounte to the position of director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in the U.S. Department of the Interior. LaCounte, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota, has served as acting director since 2018. His appointment is effective April 28, 2019.

Assistant Secretary Sweeney is committed to providing consistent and focused leadership for the BIA, as well as to actively collaborate with the Department’s senior managers. Among her top priorities is to fill all of the bureau’s leadership positions with highly qualified managers who will provide continuity and expertise in trust management in accordance with its mission.

“Ensuring that key leadership positions are filled is important for Indian Affairs’ success and the Department’s relationship with Indian Country,” Sweeney said. “Mr. LaCounte has done a superior job over this past year as the acting director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He is clearly committed to the trust responsibility and the further development of our vital workforce, which is the foundation for our ability to deliver services to the tribes.”

“When I was asked to step in to be the BIA’s acting director, I felt a strong responsibility to the people behind the work – the Indian Affairs employees, the tribes, and the Indian and Alaska Native people we serve,” LaCounte said. “In accepting this appointment as BIA director, I want to thank Assistant Secretary Sweeney for her confidence and support. Because I believe in our mission, I am committed to improving the way we accomplish it and to upholding the federal trust responsibility now and for future generations.

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Professor David Wilkins, who has written extensively on disenrollment, calls out Native American organizations that we've written about who've buried their heads in the sand to avoid the topic of Indians abused by their own tribes.

NARF, NCAI and NIGA

Here is an open letter to the leaders of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), Native American Rights Fund (NARF), and National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA):

Dear Native Leaders,

Each of your organizations, founded at critical moments in native history–NCAI in 1944, NARF in 1970, and NIGA in 1985– have and continue to play vital roles in the political, legal, and economic development of Native nations. I write you all now to request that you continue to remain vital and relevant by taking an unequivocal stand against spurious disenrollment practices that destroy the human and civil rights of individual native citizens and threaten the sovereign powers of all Native nations.

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2019 – The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) today announced the resignation of Jonodev Osceola Chaudhuri as the Chairman of National Indian Gaming Commission, effective Wednesday, May 15, 2019.

“It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve Indian country and the general public in my capacity as Chairman, a role I have had the pleasure of fulfilling since 2013. During my time as Chairman, the Commission worked hard at every turn to stress strong partnerships and consistent communication with tribal gaming operations to achieve compliance with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The Commission works with tribes to ensure they have the tools necessary to effectively regulate their operations and meet IGRA’s requirements,” said NIGC Chairman Jonodev Chaudhuri. “As I reflect on the initiatives of NIGC during my time at NIGC, we have been able to protect the integrity of Indian gaming, expand outreach, and develop new services that support gaming operations and its staff.”

Monday, April 22, 2019

We've written on Pechanga inserting themselves into Gabrieleno Tongva business, the have NO Cultural Affiliation with San Nicolas, yet they worked to keep the tribes that DO have it, from their rightful repatriation of the remains.

Many archaeologists who are knowledgeable about the earliest inhabitants of the Channel Islands say a preponderance of skeletal and DNA data affiliates the island with Gabrielino Tongva Indians, who occupied the greater Los Angeles Basin and the southern three islands: Santa Catalina, San Clemente and San Nicolas. The Navy DEEMED them Luiseno??The VCSTAR reports

After years of consultation and trips to museums, hundreds of human remains and burial objects removed from San Nicolas Island soon will be returned to California tribes.

For decades, those remains have been kept in museums and collections throughout the state after excavations that date back to the late 1800s. Over the past several years, the Navy, and tribal leaders have worked to bring them to one spot.

The goal: a final trip to San Nicolas and reburial.

Pechanga Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro described the repatriation process as allowing tribal communities to reclaim their ancestors and finally put them to rest.

“To us, they are our relations that deserve the dignity of being reinterred and cared for under tribal custom and tradition,” said Macarro, in a letter to then-Gov. Jerry Brown last year about the issue.

In 2015, the federal government published notice of a determination that the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians were culturally affiliated with San Nicolas Island, now Navy-owned. The island is about 65 miles off Ventura County.

Pechanga should BUTT out, give way to the rightful descendants of San Nicolas...

Friday, April 19, 2019

We use the number 11,000 for the disenrolled in Indian Country. In trying to make the impression with math, I used this metric: An Amtrak rail car can hold roughly 65 passengers and is 85 feet long.

To hold all disenrolled, the train would have to have 169 passenger cars that are 85 feet long and with the needed engines, it would be THREE MILES LONG. And, that would NOT include our deceased ancestors that were ALSO stripped of their citizenship...some a CENTURY after they died.

The Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band will host its next meeting at Ralph Ellison Library on April 27, 2019, at 1:00 pm. Topics of discussions will include the federal lawsuit filed by attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons of Riggs Abney law firm on behalf of the Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band to restore citizenship to thousands of Creek Freedmen within the Muscogee Creek Nation.

Carmen Tageant, a former Nooksack Tribal Councilperson and mother of seven, has reached a confidential settlement of her Whatcom County Superior Court lawsuit against Nooksack health care official LeAndra Smith, who cyberstalked Tageant from a fake Facebook account for two years.

We are pleased that Carmen was able to achieve justice for herself,” said Bree Black Horse, Tageant's counsel with Galanda Broadman, PLLC. “We hope her case has brought needed attention to the disproportionate stalking and harassment that Native women experience, and shown both victims and perpetrators in Indian Country that they are not beyond the reach of justice.”

Beginning in January 2016, LeAndra Smith used federally funded Nooksack Indian Tribal information technology to post a stolen photo of Tageant in lingerie, as well as misogynistic comments about her, in an effort to recall Tageant from the Nooksack Tribal Council. LeAndra Smith, the daughter of Nooksack Tribal Councilwoman Agripina Smith, targeted Tageant on behalf of a Tribal Council faction after she spoke out against the faction’s efforts to persecute and disenroll over 300 Nooksack Indians.

Soon after LeAndra Smith posted and disseminated the intimate photograph, Tageant became a target for sexual predators. Numerous predators sent her sexually explicit Facebook messages.

Friday, April 12, 2019

Gaming writer Buck Wargo has an incomplete piece in CDC Gaming Reports on how Native Americans are reacting to negative comments, sovereignty, and acknowledgement. He's not there to make a complete story, but report on gaming. I'll clap back in blue..There’s frustration among Native Americans that people aren’t listening to them, not taking their sovereignty seriously or recognizing that they exist. Tribal leaders said they want politicians and the public to condemn what they consider a slur to Native Americans as if someone makes a comment deemed anti-Semitic or other negative racial or religious connotations.We've written about the Pocahontas issue and the Redskins issue numerous times. This is the FIRST time we've heard Macarro mention it.

Mark Macarro, tribal chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians in Southern California, once the subject of a RECALL ATTEMPT said there was pushback from politicians and others when Congresswoman Iihan Omar, D-Minnesota, made controversial comments about Israel and Jews. They weren't controversial, they were racist, anti semitic and hateful.

“A lot of people came down on her and there was pushback because she denigrated Jewish people and politicians,” Macarro said. “Donald Trump talks about Pocahontas, and people laugh and snicker, and nobody says anything. Our Indian Country community (did) but is anybody listening?” We feel the same about YOU, Mark and your cohorts who stripped us of our heritage, denigrated our ancestors, ruined our children's futures, threaten us with banishment. And nobody says anything.

Macarro expressed frustration about a 2018 survey that said 40 percent of people didn’t think Native Americans still exist. This from a man who disenrolled 25% of his tribe out of existence, pals with other who did the same like Pala's Robert Smith, and who skirted poltical donation rules we saw in Wikileaks.

“We are invisible largely to American society, and that’s a problem,” Macarro said. “When we try to articulate argument of government parity and tribal sovereignty (SOVEREIGNTY DOESN'T mean RIGHT) who is listening other than a very small segment of Congress. You SHRINK your tribes and then cry about being invisible. What is you disenrollers had 11,000 MORE to rally to the cause? And, politician only listen to your casino money. The GOOD ones, listened to us, Mark, and kept you from your water bill even after you paid your lobbyist wife HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDSof Dollars. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

Macarro: We have a lot of work to do to turn that around. We talk to ourselves in our own echo chamber and listen to ourselves but outside of these walls nobody is hearing us. That’s a problem we need to make sure they do because our future is ahead of us.” Our future is ahead too, imagine the great publicity should disenrolling tribes bring their people home like Enterprise Rancheria and Robinson Rancheria did. BRING the Pechanga disenrolled HOME Mark. Let those caught up in a DECADES long Moratorium INTO the Tribe where they BELONG, just like their relatives. Show REAL leadership, real concern for your OWN family, your own TRIBE......

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Today is INDIAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACT day... well, really the anniversary of it's passing in 1968. I wrote about it when it was...40 the last 11 years haven't changed a thing.. Abuse of individual Indians at the hands of tribal governments and/or tribal officials- led to the introduction and enactment of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 (ICRA). Unfortunately the ICRA did not contain an effective enforcement mechanism to deter tribal governments from violating the rights of the individual. Here is a portion of the information AIRRO put together on why we need enforcement of ICRA. There was a petition on this back in the day..

A quick review of the book The Indian Civil Rights Act at Forty by Kristen A. Carpenter, Matthew L.M. Fletcher, and Angela R. Riley (eds.). Because there was no enforcement placed into this act, Native American citizens have been abused by their tribes, stripped of citizenship, banished without cause. We simply need to add enforcement.

You 'member, we wrote about it in August 2016 where Pechanga donated MORE than the allowable 100K for a DNC BUILDING FUND? Wonder if they reported what got built with the more than allowable funds? Did Pechanga get a PLAQUE saying thank you for Mark Macarro, whose wife HOLLY COOK MACARRO was on HRC's short list of Native American Advisors??

On May 19, Justin Klein of HillaryClinton.com emailed Jordan Kaplan, national finance director of the DNC. Klein had a check for $144,100 from the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians. He told Kaplan, “please note the first $100,200 should be allocated to the convention fund, while the remaining $43,900 should be allocated to the building fund.”

According to FEC (Federal Election Commission) rules, $100,200 is the campaign contribution limit for nonmulticandidate PACs in a single year. The email suggests Klein, on behalf of HillaryClinton.com, may have been trying to circumvent that limit. If true, it would constitute an offense

.UPDATE: SOURCES say...NO vote on this expenditure before the General Council.

Dear Jordan and Justin,We saw with dismay how easily the DNC and Hillary Clinton take money from a Tribe that practices APARTHEID on it's reservation, and is well known for violating the rights of it's people. I wrote to Howard Dean prior to the 2008 convention about Pechanga chairman Mark Macarro's inclusion on the platform committee. Apparently, if you have money, there's a blind eye turned.... I'll print a response.....

The filing says, the BIA trampled "public notice and participation requirements in the process, to prevent the incoming Administration from reviewing the underlying merits of the application or the extraordinary deficiencies in the process."

The argument states "every step of the review process was without precedent and without support in the law or the regulations governing NEPA, the fee-to-trust-process, and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)."

At the heart of the argument, plaintiffs claim that the Wilton Rancheria and BIA officials engaged in a bait and switch maneuver. They assert that while the original site in Galt had a required public scoping meeting, none such were conducted for the benefit of Elk Grove residents.

AND:

Of interest, the filing also provides a history of the Wilton Rancheria noting that as part of the California Rancheria Act of 1958, California Rancheria would be disbanded by a popular vote of members. In return, members were given proportional shares of land and certain improvements.

By September 2006 however, a group identify themselves as the Wilton Rancheria submitted a development agreement with the National Indian Gaming Commission for approval. According to the filing, a group called East West Gaming was to provide the "group financing to obtain federal recognition and start development of a gaming operation."

Eight months later the same group sued the U.S. Department of Interior seeking restoration as a recognized tribe claiming the government had failed to "provide certain improvements to roads, water and sewers." In a stipulated agreement, the group's status as a tribe was restored and the former land was placed back into federal trust.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

That's RIGHT. Indian Termination BY Indians, watched from the sidelines by BIA, NARF, NCAI, NIGC, Senate Indian Committee, The House.... Yes, dear friends and readers. Many Native American Tribes such as: The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, The Redding Rancheria, The Picayune (Chukchansi) Rancheria,Nooksack, PALA have all DESTROYED Indian families, including the elders that have made their tribes successful. And ruined the futures of the children. WHO STILL FIGHTS FOR THEM?Tribes like the Cherokee and Creek have violated treaties that their vaunted elders agreed to almost two centuries ago with the Cherokee Freedmen being restored after DECADES of struggle.

We must understand that we can only fight with the weapons that are available to us: TIME, ENERGY, WILLPOWER and ALLIES. We know tribes have casino dollars to spend on politicians. We know for a fact that most of us don't have those kind of funds to fight back. And we know these fights aren't won instantly. Continued pressure will work, while a once a year event has impact for a day or two, we must show our strength and willingness to fight for our rights on a regular basis.

A group of Creek Indian Freedmen have called for the boycott of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation amid endorsement of a U.S. House resolution that would sever government ties with the Oklahoma tribe.

The Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band called for a boycott of the Creek Nation. General counsel for the band, Damario Solomon-Simmons, said they are working with their national partners to call for “all individuals of good faith, particularly African Americans,” to end business with the Creek Nation until the freedmen are able to enroll in the tribe.

REMEMBER this treatment of the RIOS/TOSOBOL family, stuck in the decades old moratorium, purportedly created to give the enrollment committee a chance to get through all the applications. Did I say decades? Yes, I DID. They were kicked off the reservation, where they are land owners for PICKING SAGE...

It's amazing what Pechanga chooses to BANISH tribal descendents for. It's WELL KNOWN that they have a child molestor in their midst as well as many of the Masiel Crime family with violent offenses that bring police to the reservation.

And AMAZINGLY, they banish members of the Tosobol family, which HAS LAND ON THE RESERVATION and BLOOD RELATIVES living there for: wait for it...

PICKING SAGE!

Those dastardly villains who come onto the reservation, TELLING the security guards WHAT THEY are doing there, then get detained, searched and now face LIFE EXCLUSION for merely being on the land they OWN?

Ask yourselves, readers, WHAT is the larger crime, child molestation or sage picking? Destruction of a childhood or a plant that grows in abudance? What is the Pechanga Tribal Rangers definition of UNDESIRABLE? Please check the links above

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Over a BILLION REASON$ to DI$ENROLL....Dennis Whittlesey and Patrick Sullivan have an article on disenrollment, or here, called membership revocation due to casino money and discusses the corrupt activities at PALA, Nooksack and Chukchansi

Over the past several years, there have been a series of publicized tribal enrollment revocations of enrolled members - including former tribal leaders - and their entire families. While this phenomenon was extremely rare in the past, it is becoming increasingly and disturbingly common.

Many in Indian Country openly trace this activity from the date on which the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act became law in 1988 and tribes too often spending large amounts of their casino revenues in per capita payments to tribal members. In some cases, as tribal populations grew, revenue distributions were accordingly reduced to continue payments to all members. In other cases, the economic downturn that dates back to 2007-08 led to reduced casino revenues and, in turn, reduced individual payments. Still, many have linked dollar reductions in per capita payments to the increase in expelling members.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

A three-judge appeals panel heard arguments Wednesday morning concerning the status of two families who were disenrolled by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and whether those cases should be given a new community court hearing expanded to include expert testimony.

At the heart of both is whether there is documentation linking both families -- the Fowler/Wheaton family and the Ortiz/Perez family -- to Tribal rolls from the late 1800s.

The same panel will hear about a third family, the Alma family, early Wednesday afternoon. Sitting on the appeals court are Chief Justice Andrew Pyatskowit, Associate Justice Gregory Paulson and Associate Justice Carolyn Abeita.

The Fowler/Wheaton hearing filled the courtroom Wednesday morning as family attorney Paula Fisher traced that family's linneage back to a woman named Jane or Julia David and whether that was the same woman who appeared on the 1891 membership roll as Jane David.

Shawn Frank, attorney for the Tribe, said that the claim of lineage was completed directly and required that the family make several assumptions not born out in evidence.

Similarly for the Ortiz/Perez family, the matter comes down to just who is the John Williams identified on a Tribal membership roll from around the turn of the 20th century.

Sunday, March 24, 2019

My friend Michelle Hammock, one of the HOPLAND 74 disenrolled has a powerful piece up on her webpage . I was proud to share a podium with her in Sacramento as we shared our stories of disenrollment, I wrote about that here. I ripped my speech up after hearing hers..

The act of disenrollment is an act of genocide, whether the Genocide Convention recognizes it as such or not. It removes the living and deceased identities of federally recognized individuals and strips them of their treaty rights, their tribal constitutional rights, and their legal identities. It breaks families apart and expires the identities of a group of people. It strips them of the federal protections afforded to only Native tribal people uniquely agreed upon with our dominantly white government.And we are called hateful for decrying the acts. For calling it out and never letting it be forgotten. We are the hate filled ones that need to shut our mouths for the sake of other people’s reputations. We are told to get over it. We are told that because of “our” hate that no one would want us back. We are told that we are so blinded in hate that we cannot offer anything to our tribes. And to that I say Fuck You!